> On Oct 15, 2016, at 11:40 AM, Paul Phillips <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi John,
>
> It appears there's been a big misunderstanding.
>
> I don't accept that there is a conflict of interest. Why do you think there
> is? As you would be aware there are many examples of open source projects
> that have successfully adopted a commercial model.
>
> I'm offering to assist in accelerating development on the project in a way
> that complements the project goals, and not just coding: e.g. helping to
> create and maintain user documentation.
>
> I'm happy to discuss further with you and/or others in the development team.
> Perhaps IRC or another medium would be best rather than the mailing list.
>
> If the consensus is not to accept my help, then I respect that, but it would
> be unfortunate if this opportunity passed merely due to a misunderstanding.
Paul,
I don't think there's any misunderstanding. Rather I think you're trying to
sell the development team on something and being less than candid about your
motivations.
The conflict is very simple: From your Linkedin profile:
"I'm the founder, director and developer of PatchPitch.com. PatchPitch.com
brings certainty, control and
sustainability to Open Source Software, both for customers and developers,
through a form of project managed micro
crowd funding."
You also appear from Linkedin to have another company, SpikeSA, that is a
project management consultancy.
The conflict should be obvious: You're offering to help with the contracting
and managing on GnuCash's behalf of something that you're in business to
provide. If you can't recognize that conflict then you're remarkably ethically
challenged. The impression of ethical challenge is reinforced by the fact that
you have approached us twice and both times failed to disclose your business
interest.
But let's let that go for a moment. Let's also assume for a moment that we're
interested in following up on the crowdfunding proposal and letting you run it.
Apply for the job: Submit a CV and checkable references. I think the task
involves the following:
1. Understanding the overall goals and priorities of the GnuCash development
team for the next two release cycles (i.e., until 2020).
2. Analyzing those goals and priorities and developing concrete sub-projects to
further them.
3. Writing requests-for-proposal for accomplishing those sub-projects.
4. Make credible estimates of the costs for contracting out those tasks and
obtaining the requisite funds through crowdfunding, including whatever
commissions/salary you'd require for performing this work.
4. Finding consulting software engineers and documenters with the ability to
execute the sub-projects, get them to answer the RFPs, and select the best
proposals.
5. Write contracts for the selected engineers and documenters to perform the
work. Contracts need to include deliverables, concrete requirements for
evaluating the acceptability of the deliverables, intermediate milestones for
progress payments, and time frames for completion, plus all of the other legal
stuff that goes into contracts like that.
6. Supervise the contractors to ensure that the milestones are met and
administer payment.
7. Evaluate the provided code and documentation for good design,
implementation, and correct language choice. Ensure that documentation and code
is well-written, complies with GnuCash's coding standards, and is ready to
merge into GnuCash at each milestone.
Your Linkedin profile suggests that your actual experience covers only items 1
(though not for GnuCash), 6, and maybe 7 (see below), and there's no real
indication of actual proficiency there, it's just a bare CV.
Oh-by-the-way, since your employment at CSC seems to have been as a personal
services contractor to BAE Systems I don't place a lot of credibility on the
recommendations of your CSC colleagues. After all, they weren't the end
recipients of the work you did.
The next question is how do we manage you? Are you proposing to do all of that
work as a volunteer or do you expect to be paid? If the latter, what are your
deliverables, intermediate milestones, and payment schedule? How do we evaluate
your performance to those deliverables and milestones? How do we control your
solicitation on crowdfunding sites, collection of the money, disbursement of
the money, etc.?
You profess to "love open source", but what have you actually done for open
source projects?
What about coding and code evaluation skills? Are there some significant
features that you've implemented on major FLOSS projects that you can point to?
Large pull requests or patch sets that you've reviewed? Mailing list
discussions on a major project that you've contributed to in a meaningful way?
All of which falls far short of "adopting a commercial model", something that
you haven't brought up before (raising more questions about your motivations).
FWIW, Linas Vepstas, one of the original creators of GnuCash, tried that around
2000. You'll find vestiges in the copyrights on some of the older modules; look
for "Linux Developers Group". It didn't work out. One or two developers have
also tried selling GnuCash consulting and customization over the years, and
that hasn't worked out very well either. It might be possible to build a
business around GnuCash but past experience indicates it wouldn't be easy.
Regards,
John Ralls
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